How will EMU influence the European political economy? This paper argues that most of the likely alternatives are unsustainable for at least some of the EMU member-states. As a result, the Stability Pact imposed by the Kohl government and the Bundesbank is likely to be rejected by other member-states. Additionally, EMU will most likely also have an effect on the relations within the German political economy, by unsettling the basic compromise between employers and labour unions that was at the basis of German export successes in recent decades.